Your Radicalized Unbiased Guide to the Trump Presidency: Part 1 – The Wall

These days, there’s few other things that people bang on about more about than Donald Trump (other than Brexit, which is basically Britain’s Donald Trump). In fact, it’s getting annoying, especially when people get shrill about shit that doesn’t matter!

So, your friend’s at Radicalized by the Internet (that being me), have put together an ‘unbiased’ guide to Donald Trump’s Presidency. I write this on the eve of his inauguration.

The purpose of the guide is to determine what the issues really are, and what the potential rewards of the Trump Presidency could be. This is in part difficult to do because Trump is so unpredictable. This being an ‘issue’ in itself.

My aim here is to see if we can separate exaggerated minor concerns regarding his impending Presidency from issues that are really worthy of concern. The aim is to gain a better focus on what matters.

I will say from the start that I don’t believe in ‘facts’. Haha, just kidding. I don’t believe in ‘facts’… without an accompanying strong analysis of the context in which the facts appear. I believe bare evidence in many circumstances is misleading and a poor representation of the truth.

So for instance, in assessing his comments, I will refer to the context in which he makes them. For me this includes the context of Trump’s personality itself and the cultural context in which he makes them.

Here we go…

Part 1 – The Wall

Not a Pink Floyd album, the proposed border wall, is the promise of the Trump campaign. Apart from its purpose as a physical obstacle to illegal immigration, it is a symbol of the President Elect’s campaign and Presidency.

The shrill response about the wall from Trump’s political adversaries, particularly the left, is absolutely ridiculous. It is stupid, it is shrill. Trump’s wall is very nearly an absolute none issue.

Very simply, if the man wants to build a wall along the Mexico-US border let him. If he believes Mexico will pay for this wall, good for him, best of luck to him. We do not blame our neighbour for building a fence along his property border. Why this issue has garnered so much attention, so much vitriol, is inexplicable.

I have a feeling it is because the wall is a symbol of Trump’s campaign that makes it a target for the left. But more than that, if the wall is successful in its purpose it will also be a symbol of the power of simple solutions when backed with the necessary political will. It represents a victory of the Trump voting rancher over the political establishment insider who has presided over this problem for decades. They don’t want the refrain of many a farmer and rural working man, ‘Just build a God damn wall!’, to be the solution to the problem, they for all their education and advantage, overlooked!

But it’s not really a matter of oversight, more a matter of Republican and Democratic politician’s self-concerned vote counting. They understand the Latino vote is big and ever growing. So presidential election after election, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush and beyond, have largely side stepped the issue.

Give Trump the deserved credit for taking the issue by the horns. He has put a divisive but important issue front and centre and still won large sections of the Latino vote!

But symbolism aside, the USA is entitled to build a wall and has good reason to do so. In the US illegal immigration is a serious problem, which has not been properly addressed in the past. Israel has built a wall for security reasons, so why shouldn’t the US build a wall for similar reasons?

The argument the US economy relies on Mexican immigration isn’t really an issue. The wall does not necessarily curtail Mexican immigration it only allows for the control of it.

What about people saying the wall would symbolise a new era of American isolationism and the whole Pope comment about bridges, walls, whatever he said? Who cares! Impressions, sensitivities of ‘what it says’, ‘oh what does it mean’ navel gazing, moral vanities, I think, are of secondary importance to basic fundamentals like border security and being able to control who enters your country. Particularly when you have millions of undocumented immigrants entering your county every year. I know this sounds so wrong to the ears of left wing liberals, of which I like to count myself, but really, get real. More to the point, start thinking practically, a little bit like one of those Trump voting farmers (not totally, a little bit).

There is not much reason to be concerned about Trump’s promise to build a wall. One might imply it is symbolic of how Trump might treat illegal immigrants living in the USA. This is a concern.

Although, I don’t feel he will do much about this. There are approximately 11 million undocumented illegal immigrants in the US. It is politically unfeasible to remove any of them. If deportation was to take place it would require legal criteria to determine who would go based on established presence in the US. This would lead to amnesty being granted to most illegal immigrants. Together with the wall this would be a real solution to illegal immigration, giving certainty to all.

But fundamentally the wall is a none issue, there is nothing to be concerned about. It is a perfectly reasonable policy proposal. If you don’t like Trump, pick another reason to dislike him, this is not one.